MINNEAPOLIS--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Norwest Equity Partners (“NEP”), a leading middle market investment
firm, has announced that Nicole Strait has joined its staff as Chief of
Organization Strategy. In this role, Strait will be responsible for
designing and building the firm’s organization strategy and capabilities
needed to execute its operations as a leading middle market equity
investor. In addition to her role internally at NEP, she will serve as a
senior advisory resource for NEP portfolio management teams, human
resource teams, and Board of Managers providing organization strategy
and design, coaching support, and human resource (HR) functional best
practices.

Tim DeVries, NEP Managing General Partner, stated, “On behalf of the NEP
partnership, I am thrilled to have Nicole join our team as she is a
proven human resource organization strategist with deep functional
expertise. Our firm has been fortunate to work with Nicole over the last
several years as she provided advisory consulting to our portfolio
companies. In this newly created role at NEP, Nicole will continue
providing this critical resource to portfolio company management teams
as well as work with our investment staff and firm at large. She has
strong business acumen and is an effective business partner across the
organization.”

With more than 20 years of HR career experience, Strait has served as a
key member of senior leadership teams providing a breadth of HR advisory
services, including business process development, acquisition
integration, organization effectiveness, compensation design, talent
strategy, change management, recruiting, leadership coaching and team
development.

Prior to joining NEP in 2014, Strait was a founding partner at River
Rock Partners, a management consulting firm focused on assisting both
privately- and publicly-held clients in successfully planning and
navigating through critical business transformations, including growth
strategy planning, M&A due diligence and integration, and organization
effectiveness and culture development. Her other notable human resource
leadership career experience includes working for CNS (the Breathe
Right® company), International Multifoods, Simondelivers.com, The
Pillsbury Company, and Cargill.

Strait received her BBA degree in Industrial Relations and Human
Resources Management from the University of Iowa.

Norwest Equity Partners (NEP) is a leading middle market investment
firm focused on partnering with business owners to build their companies
into industry leaders. With a reputation for quality investments and
exceptional financial returns since 1961, NEP manages nearly $5 billion
of capital through a series of equity and mezzanine funds. Offering
creative and flexible transaction solutions, NEP seeks $30-$150 million
equity investment opportunities for growing and profitable companies
within the agriculture, applied technology, business services, consumer
products and services, distribution, diversified industrials, and
healthcare sectors. NEP is based in Minneapolis. Please visit nep.com
for more information.